Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	house_n	parliament_n	vote_n	2,038	5	10.1645	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35857	A dialogue at Oxford between a tutor and a gentleman, formerly his pupil, concerning government		1681 (1681)	Wing D1290; ESTC R20617	14,276	23

their duties the corrupting of Witnesses and forging fatal crimes against Protestant Dissenters the pressing and Admission of the Romish Religion upon a Protestant State by persons under a publick Character from England and as the Summ of all A popish Influence upon the continuance or Prorogations of Parliaments And all this even during the malignity and hellish operation of a Popish Plot upon us I say I cannot see how the necessary remembrance of these things especially when done with all possible decency and respect to the King should deserve an hard thought or jealous and suspected name except you do believe that our Lay-Title to our own throats ought to give way to the Jus Divinum of the Papists Tu. Well! but were there not Arbitrary Orders made for taking Persons into Custody for matters that had no Relation to priviledges of Parliament and strange illegal Votes declaring divers eminent persons to be enemies to the State without process of Law or hearing their defence or having any proofs made against them Pu. I think it 's agreed on all hands that the House of Commons have Power to commit and censure such as shall offer any Violence or Injury but to one of their moenial Servants so tender is the genius of our Government of the Priviledges of Parliament that it puts the punishment of so small and remote an offence as this into their own hands without having Recourse to the ordinary Courts of Justice And can you imagine that they have not authority to punish Crimes that strike at the very Root and Being of Parliaments themselves And whether obstructing violating and abhorring our undoubted Rights of Petitioning for a Parliament at a time when if ever there was need of one did not directly look that way I will leave it to your self to judge And as to the illegal Votes as you are pleased to call them against some eminent Persons c. I pray God those eminent persons themselves have not drawn you in to such an Objection for pray Sir how shall it be tried whether a Vote of either House be Legal or Illegal in the course of it Certainly by nothing but the Law and Course of Parliaments which under Favour I think cannot be determined designed or judged of by any other Court or Person out of Parliament whatever And if it should there would be a Circulation in our Policy publick Justice would run in a wheel and no cause whatever of this nature could receive a final and ultimate determination which I take to be more than an Answer to all your Objections Besides in this particular case the House of Commons declared their Opinion of these great men in order to farther proceedings had they had time and herein their Vote was but a Ground-work for an Impeachment which would regularly have brought their Opinion into Judgment and I would willingly hear a reason why this first step of the Process might not be made without forein proof the House of Commons in cases of Impeachment being in nature of a Grand-Jury of the Kingdom which may have a self Evidence and present and proceed upon matters within their own Knowledge Tu. But what can you say to the Votes against Anticipations of the Revenue Pu. Much more than I think fit to say at present and therefore I shall only put you in mind of the real War with Holland and statute War with France and desire you to consider what Mr. Coleman saies upon this Subject as to the Occasions of our having or not having Parliaments But pray Tutor remember that you have tied your self up to urge all these things as causes of the Dissolutions and I will appeal to all men of Conversation then in London whether the succeeding Dissolution was not generally discours'd of and believed through the whole Town before the passing those Votes which were chiefly intended as an Argument to persuade the sitting of a Parliament during the Distress and Hazards of the Kingdom Tu. But how can you justifie their Votes against putting the poenal Laws in Execution against the Protestant Dissenters whenas the Judges are bound by their Oaths to execute the Laws did they not hereby assume to themselves a Power of suspending Acts of Parliament Pu. Very well Sir by this and by Dangerfield's Evidence I dare lay Eight Pounds a Week I can spell out your meaning And Tu. Why how now Pupil sure you don't think I 'm in Earnest Pu. I know it and yet the bare mentioning such an Objection during our present circumstances does naturally make me a little serious and therefore pray consider that the sole End of all our Laws is the publick good which chiefly consists in the Enjoyment and Preservation of our Government our Religion and Properties and that there has been and yet is an hellish and damnable Plot contrived and carryed on by Papists for the subversion of them all If then it does appear the Protestant Dissenters are a numerous Party in the Nation and have all along made Head against the Conspirators to the Envy of their Neighbours and testified their zeal to the Protestant Religion and Detestation of the Plot at least equally to any other sort of men for the truth of which I dare appeal to the Common Ingenuity of all sober Church-men and to the malice of the Conspirators themselves who have put a particular mark of Honour upon their Integrity by forging Sham plots and suborning false Witnesses against them I say if this be their case where then is their Crime or rather how great was the wisdom I had almost said Gratitude of the House of Commons in Voting That it is their Opinion that the prosecuting Protestant Dissenters upon the poenal Statutes is at this time grievous to the Subject an Encouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom And we all know that most of these cutting Laws were either new made or scour'd up and furbished at a time when it was natural to pass from one extream to another but however the Reason of a Law ceasing is vertually a Repeal of the Law itself yet the House of Commons were so modest as barely to declare their Opinion pro Tempore till a legal Provision might be made for Protestant Dissenters in a Regular and Formal way its plain they did not pretend by their single Vote to alter the Laws for if they had why then did they bring in a Bill for Repealing the 35th of Elizabeth which passing both Houses was afterwards carefully lost lest so precious a Jewel might be wanting upon occasion But if State-Oaths do critically oblige all that have taken them officiously to execute whatever Laws are in being and at all times without any regard to the good or evil that may ensue I can neither see how Proclamations to put particular Laws in Execution came first in use nor sufficiently admire the good Fortune of persons Reconciled to the Church of Rome and of English Priests and Jesuits amongst